Classroom Newsletter

Dear Families,

Thank you for a wonderful Team Picnic at the Shelburne Beach earlier this week. I am overwhelmed by your kindness and the gifts from the kids are amazing. I am very touched and will treasure my new special things forever. The plants are planted and I use my new book bag EVERY DAY. I decided to use the beautiful watering can as an inside flower pot for cut flowers because I don’t want it to break. The gift card was very generous of you too….it was perfect as I love to garden. I will buy a special bush or tree and remember this class forever. I will let you know. One student gave me a collection of inspirational thank-you-cards and I would like to quote one: “All we can ask in our lives is that perhaps we can make a little difference in someone else’s.” I would like to say, YOU have all made a HUGE difference in mine. Thank you.

We also celebrated the 400 year anniversary of Lake Champlain this week. We were treated to many special activities and learned in great detail how Samuel de Champlain and the French helped the Nations of Indian Tribes against the Iroquois. We also learned about Wampum storytelling and other customs. Vermont has an incredibly rich history. Hopefully, you will all get a chance to explore it further this summer as the festivities and events continue.

We have many specials next week. Please see our schedule below.

Monday, 6/8/09-Wacky Hair Day (come to school in a fun hair-do)
Tuesday, 6/9/09-Teddy Bear Day (bring your favorite teddy bear or stuffed animal)
Wednesday, 6/10/09- Games to school Day (bring your favorite game to school. No electronics, please)
Thursday, 6/11/09-Pajama/Favorite Book Day (come to school in your PJs and bring your favorite book for read aloud). Author’s Café between 1:30pm-2:30pm (parents invited)
Friday, 6/12/09-Half Day. Dismissal at 11:35am.

Have a great weekend!
Regards,
Maria McCormack

Classroom Newsletter

Dear Families,

As the school-year is coming to an end, there are many special events and activities to keep track of, so this letter is a summary of what will be coming up in the next two weeks.

On Monday, 6/1/09, the Inspire Team will visit the New Village Farm. We will walk over and we will leave the school at 8:45 am. We will return to the school around 11:00 am. Thank you all who signed up to come along. It would be great if you could meet us in the classroom so we can walk together. At the farm, we will divide into three smaller groups and help the owners with different chores. We will have the opportunity to learn about annuals, perennials, and learn some simple gardening skills. We will also place out our plant markers. Ask your child to explain what plants and vegetables we designed these wonderfully artistic plant markers for. Please remember to wear appropriate clothing for the weather as we will be outside. No flip-flops or sandals please.

On Tuesday, 6/2/09, the Inspire Team will have its Field Day, a day filled with fun games and activities. Thank you for signing up to help us on this very special day. We will start setting up around 8:30 am and the students will come out between 9:00-10:00. We will have six stations, and the students will rotate between them all, in mixed groups with friends from both classes. For one of the stations, we are looking for a large jumping ball, the kind you can sit on while holding onto handle. If you have one of these, please let me know. Thank you! We were also wondering if anyone would be willing to donate watermelon for our “Snack Station”. If so, please let me know. Thank you.

On Tuesday, 6/2/09, SCS is celebrating Lake Champlain’s 400^th anniversary party with many fun-filled activities. Our students have the opportunity to participate in many events. For example, we will listen to Wampum Story-telling, a traditional story-telling form used by the Wamponoag Tribe to aid in the comprehension and delivery of stories. Do you know what it is?

Tuesday, 6/2/09, ends with our Inspire Evening Picnic at Shelburne Beach. This fun event starts at 5pm. Please bring your own beverages and food. The team will provide dessert. Tuesday is a very busy day for us. Let’s hope for SUN!!!

The last week of school is filled with daily activities listed below. Please note that our Author’s Café has been scheduled for Thursday, 6/11/09 at 1:30. Our students will share their narrative stories and we also hope to share our class-story with you as well. This gathering should last for about one hour. There is no need to sign up or let me know. Please come by if your schedule allows. We look forward to sharing our writing skills with you!!

Monday, 6/8/09-Wacky Hair Day (come to school in a fun hair-do)

Tuesday, 6/9/09-Teddy Bear Day (bring your favorite teddy bear or stuffed animal)

Wednesday, 6/10/09- Games to school Day (bring your favorite game to school. No electronics, please)

Thursday, 6/11/09-Pajama/Favorite Book Day (come to school in your PJs and bring your favorite book for read aloud). Author’s Café between 1:30pm-2:30pm (parents invited)

Friday, 6/12/09-Half Day. Dismissal at 11:35am.

Learning about Switzerland

Veronica Bernicke visited our classroom to teach us about her native country, Switzerland. Here are some pictures from her visit. Ask your children about our decorated cows and the cow parades!

Our Mexican Geometric Place Mats

Look at our beautiful Mexican place mats! We explored patterns with colors and paper weaving. We are very proud of the results and hope to use these place mats many times!

May 22, 2009 Family Letter

Dear Families,

We are getting close to the end of the school year and are enjoying many extra activities at Shelburne Community School!

We participated in the school-wide Jog-A-Thon this week, and this fun PTO fundraiser encouraged us all to run and walk together. The weather was gorgeous. It was so sunny and warm, we felt very lucky to be out there first thing in the morning. I hope you saw the number tags your children brought home with all the tally marks on them. The tally marks represent how many laps your child did around the flag-pole circle! We have some amazing athletes in first grade with great attitudes. Sometimes we ran, sometimes we walked and sometimes we “wogged” (that is what Inspire first graders call jogging and running combined), but we completed the task together! At the end we were treated to ice pops, and that felt great after all that exercising!

Our narrative stories are almost complete and this week we have been busy editing and adding a section entitled “Meet the Author”. In this section, first grade writers can introduce themselves to the readers and give interesting information about them. We have also started designing our covers. As an additional treat for this narrative writing unit, first graders will learn to tell narrative stories according to Nahuatl, an ancient Aztec writing form. The Aztecs did not have a written language like ours so they told their stories through art and symbols, a process that first graders began exploring this week. Please re-visit our blog for examples of this very unique way of telling a story. We discovered that the same story can be told in many different ways and art forms, and almost appear as if it is a different story every time it is re-told. The students had a choice between using traditional Aztec symbols, create their own, or simply tell their stories using more familiar arts forms and pictures. We are very excited to share these skills!

News and Reminders:

• The Inspire Team will walk to the New Village Farm in Shelburne on 6/1/09. This fieldtrip is part of our unit on plants. We will help out in the gardens and also contribute some plant markings that we have designed in our own classrooms. If you would like to join us, please let me know. We will leave at 8:45am and return at 10:45am. Thanks!
• The entire Inspire Team will have a school field day on 6/2/09. We set up stations outside the school and play interactive and fun games. We would like parents to volunteer and help us with this fun day. We need parents to set up, manage the stations and clean up. Please let me know if you are interested. If you are interested in helping out, we would like for you to set up at 8:30 am. Students arrive at 9:00 and play for approximately one hour. Please sign up on the attached form and return to the classroom as soon as possible. Thank you for your help!
• The Inspire End-of-the-year School Picnic is scheduled for 6/2/09 at the Shelburne Beach between 5-9pm. This event is an opportunity for everybody to get together and enjoy some good food and games. Please bring your own food. The Team will provide dessert.
• The last day of school is Friday 6/12/09. It is a half day, so students will dismiss at 11:35 am.

Have a great weekend! Enjoy the sunshine.

Regards,

Maria McCormack

Our spider plants are coming home today!

First graders planted their spider plants today. They are planted in small containers for safe transportation and need to be re-planted at home. They should be re-planted in containers with drainage holes at the bottom so ensure that the soil does not get too wet.

I always say these spider plants are great friends because they are very forgiving and good friends are forgiving. If you forget to water them for a few days, they will perk right back and continue to grow once you give them water again! Take good care of your new friend and good luck!

Newsletter May 15, 2009

This past week, first graders were busy in all subject areas. They continued writing their own narrative stories in Writer’s Workshop, continued their work in geometry, and perfected their scientific inquiry skills while studying plants.

In Writer’s Workshop, the students began creating their own narratives, using many different tools to help them get started. Some students benefited from our discussions of potential topics, while others explored topics from books and magazines in the classroom. Some students used our “Word Baskets” to help them create their stories, while another group of students simply closed their eyes to think freely and independently. It was wonderful to see so many authors ready to take on this challenge and truly participate in the writing process the way it should evolve. The students created rough drafts on our color-coordinated helper sheets, with sections for characters, setting, problem and solution. The students also edited and added more details as they polished their writing pieces. They are so excited to share their creations with their friends, but for now, we are trying to work independently, sharing only at the end of class and at our end of the unit “Author’s Café” celebration. We will inform you of time and place so you can all attend this very special celebration as we get closer to its conclusion. Lastly, our classroom narrative unit is complete and we will begin creating the illustrations soon as a collaborative venture in small groups.

Our math unit on geometry exposed us to both 2- and 3-dimentional shapes this week. We also learned what polygons are. Ask your child to explain this mathematical concept to you. This unit is particularly interesting to us, as it allows us to explore geometry in the world around us and in different cultures. Your child will bring home his/her Mexican place mats this week and they have been laminated so they can be enjoyed many times. Please look closely at the precise patterns your child created.

On Tuesday, we were treated to another engaging Hands On Nature class. This time, our parent volunteers taught us a class on honey bees and their behaviors. We learned so much! For example, did you know that the Queen bee eats something called “royal jelly” and that the male bees are called “drones”? Did you know that the worker bees work all the time to bring food back to the hive and do a special dance to let all the others know where the food is located? We had a chance to practice these dances outside, challenging our friends to find hidden flowers in a field. Lastly, we also had the opportunity to study a real bee hive, and discovered that the inside quarters were shaped like hexagons!! Isn’t it amazing—MATH IS EVERYWHERE!!! (Perhaps your child also remembers from our study of the human body that the inside of the human bone is shaped in a honeycomb design through which the blood flows! More hexagons!!).

Our spider plant shoots are almost ready to be planted and the roots are growing long and thick. We observe them periodically and take note of the changes we see. Our beans are starting to sprout as well. We discovered that the roots are coming first, before the stem and the leaves. Ask your child to explain why.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Regards,

Maria McCormack

Inspire First Grade learns about Switzerland

Veronica Bernicke visited our classroom today and taught us many new and interesting things about her native country, Switzerland. We learned that Switzerland is a small, landlocked country in Europe. Although this country is so small, its citizens eats the most chocolate in the world!!(On average, each person eats about 15 pounds per year...to understand what 15 pounds is, we tried to think of other things that weigh the same. Ask your child to share our findings with you).

We also learned that Switzerland's flag is a square. Most other countries' flags are rectangular. Its flag is red with a white cross on it. The founder of the Red Cross, J. Henri Dunant, came from Switzerland, so to honor him, the Red Cross decided to create a flag for itself in the exact same colors, but mirrored. Hence, the Red Cross now has a flag that is white with a red cross on it.

We also learned that there are many similarities between Swizerland and Vermont. For example, Switzerland has mountains, just like we do in Vermont, but their mountains are called the Alps. We also learned that they have many cows in Switzerland, just like we do in Vermont. They also use the cows for milk, cream, cheese, and ice cream, but their style of farming is very different from ours. Their cows get to go to a "camp" during the summer months so the farmers can cut the grass into hay. The cows move up the mountains as the farmers work the land and as they move upward, they also get to wear the traditional bells around their necks (so the farmers can find them). When the summer is over, the cows return to their villages in a big parade. They are dressed up, with the milking stool placed upside down on their heads, which are filled with evergreens, flowers and other beautiful decorations!!!!

Lastly, we learned that they speak four different languages in Switzerland. They speak French, German, Italian, and Romansch. Try to match the following phrases for "hello" to these four languages: (Also, don't forget to check out our Wiki-page for more information and games about Switzerland)
Bon Jour
Grusse
Bongiorno
Bien di

Classroom Newsletter 5/8/09

Dear Families,

Another fun and educational week has just ended in first grade.

We continued to “travel” around the world, and had the opportunity to explore geometry with Mexican paper cortados. We cut out various shapes in colorful tissue papers, which we hung in our classroom. Ask your child to tell you about the patterns and shapes he/she chose to cut out. Mexican paper cortados are usually used during “fiestas”. Ask your child to explain. We also had the opportunity to explore geometry while making Mexican place mats. We used rulers and cut one-inch paper strips, which we wove into other paper strips. The finished products are amazing. We are waiting for them to be laminated, so they will come home shortly! Ms. Grau visited our classroom this week, and with her help, we learned to count to ten and sing some songs in Spanish. Ask your child to teach you!

Our plant unit continues with many interactive experiments and explorations. We observe our spider plant shoots daily, recording and discussing our expanding scientific knowledge. We were very fortunate to have another visitor in our classroom to tell us about some very special plants that grow from bulbs. Ms. Bachilas joined us for a presentation about ranunculus. She recently traveled to Carlsbad, CA, and showed us pictures of these very special flowers. She told us they grow on large fields and because they are planted so close to each other in rows of different colors, they look like colorful blankets covering the ground from far away. Thank you, Ms. Bachilas, for sharing your knowledge and experience. Please visit the blog again for pictures of these amazing ranunculus flower fields.

Next week, first graders will learn that plants can also grow from seeds! Our garden fieldtrip is scheduled for June 1^st (9am-11:00). Please let me know if you are interested in joining us. Thank you!

Our classroom narrative story continues to develop as well. Last week, the students and I chose to write a story together about a dragon, a mouse and a dinosaur. We practiced our listening and speaking skills this week, taking turns sharing the pen and discussing different ideas for our narrative. We have so many creative first graders. Ask your child to tell you what the dragon’s name is and what he looks like and acts like. We will share the whole story when we are finished as a class.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Regards,

Maria McCormack

Exploring geometry around the world

Below are some examples of Alaskan Yup'ik Inuit geometric patterns. We used our finished products as bookmarks. Enjoy!

Dear Families,

Spring has finally arrived and the warm, sunny weather makes for more learning opportunities in our first grade classroom! Our unit on plants started this week and it is wonderful to witness the emergence of growth and vegetation first hand. Throughout this study, the students will not only learn to identify the various parts of plants, but they will also learn about life-cycles and growth patterns. We will start seedlings in the classroom and observe the growth process under various circumstances as we observe our experiments just like scientists. We will also participate in the school garden and visit a local farm, where we will have the opportunity to further help out in the gardening and planting process. Please check out the sidebar on our wiki page for many interactive and educational games on plants. In order to get to the games and interactive sites, please follow the links and click as you go along. If you have any problems accessing the plant unit, please let me know.

We also started our new writing unit this week. For the next few weeks, we will learn how to write narrative stories on our own. We will learn how to use our knowledge of characters, setting, problems and solutions and weave them into creative and imaginary stories. We started our unit by working in small groups, cutting out words from magazines in order to create a classroom collection of creative ideas. One group collected adjectives, another action words, or verbs. Yet another group collected words that described various settings and characters. Our word curiosity is growing daily and as our classroom collection expands, we are discovering that our ability to tell and write stories improve as well. Ask you child to tell you about our first joint narrative story about a dragon, a dinosaur and a mouse in school! Our classroom word collection will serve as an additional tool as your child begins to write his or her own narratives.

On Monday, the entire Inspire Team visited the Flynn Theater to see “The ant and the elephant”. Ask your child to tell you about the interesting form of narration this play provided. (Hint, the narrator entered the story himself and the characters began to write the plot!). We got so many ideas for our own narratives!

We will continue our trip around the world on Friday. On Friday, we will “visit” Mexico. Carol Grau, our wonderful ESL teacher, will visit the class and teach us Spanish words and songs. We are very excited and cannot wait to show you our new knowledge. Carol Grau will visit the classroom twice a week for the remainder of the school-year to help us learn more about Mexico and countries in South America. Next week, we will all be treated to a very special class and activity on “The Eye of the Child”. Thank you Carol for joining our classroom! Please check the blog and newsletter for more details as they unfold.

If you have a special connection to a country, place, or culture and wish to share that with us in the classroom, please do not hesitate to call or e-mail me. We would love to have you visit our classroom.

Have a great weekend!

Regards,

Maria McCormack

Aboriginal Dot Painting Video

Enjoy the video!

Aboriginal Dot Paintings

Here are some examples of our Aboriginal dot paintings. More will be posted later in the week. Have a great vacation!

Classroom Newsletter 4/17/09

Dear Families,

We have worked very hard in first grade this week. We finished our non-fiction reports and had fun sharing them in class. We have worked on this unit for a few weeks and written many reports on different topics. For publication, some students chose their reports on marsupials, while others chose reports on magnets or favorite toys and gifts. The students enjoyed looking through their writing pieces and comparing their rough drafts to the final, edited piece. We have also started writing our reports on the computers. The students write them as a Word document in their own personalized font. Writing the reports on the computers has become so popular that some students wish to spend recess indoors so they can finish them before the break next week!!!
In math, we started a new unit on geometry this week and explored shapes and patterns in stations and small group work. First, we learned to identify two-dimensional shapes and used templates and rulers to create our own. We also learned to make patterns using the Yup’ik Inuit border patterns from Alaska. We learned that these geometric patterns are passed on in families and used in clothing. We used this design technique to make book-marks. Please visit the Inspire First grade blog to view examples of these artistic creations! I hope to post the pictures soon. The students will receive the actual book-marks after the break. Second, we worked in small groups to create a larger geometric mural for our classroom. Each group was responsible for a quarter of the mural. The students were asked to come up with a plan for what they wanted to include and which colors to use. They worked very well together and the results were amazing. Please visit the blog again for pictures.
The concert was a success earlier this week! I had the privilege to see the dress rehearsal earlier that day, and I was very impressed. I hope you all enjoyed this very special evening. We listen to the songs many times in the classroom. We even created a new greeting to go along with these songs. Ask your child to tell you about the “Bubble Greeting”.
We attended the 5th grade dress rehearsal with Jon Gailmor this week as well. First and second graders met with him last week. We also had the opportunity to write a song with him. The students chose the words and Jon Gailmor put it to music. It was great and we had fun!
Lastly, the Inspire team will attend "The ant and the elephant" at the Flynn Theater, Monday April 27, 2009. This is the first day back from the school break. Students need a bag lunch as we will depart at 11:15 and eat lunch in the classroom. Please remember your child needs to pack a peanut free lunch. We will return at 1:30. Thanks.

Have a wonderful week off from school!
Regards,
Maria McCormack

A letter from our pen-pals in Zambia!

We received a letter from our pen-pals in Zambia this week! We learned many new things about this country. We learned more about the Victoria Falls and we also learned that it is very hot in Livingstone, the city where our pen-pals live. In fact, it is so hot that students take their shoes off in school! We do not do that in America.
We also learned that the schools in Zambia do not serve lunches so the students must bring their own.
We learned that some things are the same too. For example, they go on field-trips, just like we do at Shelburne Community School. They do not have a school bus, but take a very large truck! They also keep the alphabet on the walls of their classroom to help them spell and read. We have that in our classroom too.
The letter included many wonderful drawings of places in Livingstone. They are on display in our classroom. Please come and visit. We will write them back and include pictures of Shelburne.

Classroom Newsletter 4/10/09

4/10/09

Dear Families,

We have had another exciting week in first grade with incredible learning!

We were treated to another interesting Hands-On-Nature class on Tuesday. Our parent volunteers taught us about animal camouflage. They performed a puppet show and showed us many pictures with camouflaged animals. It was sometimes very tricky to find the animals in nature in these pictures. Ask your child to tell you about the picture with the deer. We all needed to take an extra look. We also had the opportunity to go outside and see camouflage in action. We were looking for “worms” (yarn) in bright red and blue, but when we searched for the brown “worms” we could not find them!!! Our parent volunteers certainly illustrated this very important aspect of nature perfectly! Thank you!!

In math, we have started telling time in five minute increments and we continue to build basic number sense across all areas. We continue to focus on thinking strategies so we can become self-reliant mathematicians. This week, we also learned to measure by centimeters and meters. Ask your child to tell you about our mathematical exploration comparing meters and feet while measuring how far an Australian kangaroo can jump! Please visit our classroom to see the incredible work these first grade mathematicians completed.

We “traveled” to Australia this week and learned about the capital Canberra, the city Sydney and Mount Conner. We also learned about the Outback and the Aboriginals. Ask your child to describe the Aboriginal Clapping Sticks used as a morning greeting and please visit our new mural and display of Aboriginal dot paintings. We also learned about the different animals in Australia and wrote a report on marsupials. Ask your child to tell you about the characteristics of these interesting animals. Please also visit our new hallway mural entitled “Inspire First Grade travels around the world”. See if you can recognize your child’s portrait somewhere in the world…..

News and Reminders:

• Please do not forget Inspire’s Music Concert on April 14^th at 7 pm. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me or Diana Burritt.
• Enclosed in this folder is information regarding the “Dynamic Dates”, a very fun and popular PTO fundraiser. The Inspire Team teachers participate and we will have a special lunch with special treats.
• The Inspire First Grade Wiki is constantly being updated so please do not forget to check it out periodically. Please go to scsvt.org and click on “Academic Teams”, Maria McCormack and “First Grade Wiki”.

Have a great weekend!

Regards,

Maria McCormack